FBI Investigates LAPD SWAT Officers Over Gun Sales

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LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – The FBI has launched its own investigation of members of the Los Angeles Police Department, looking into whether or not officers broke the law by buying and reselling custom-made handguns for profit.

In particular, the FBI is reviewing the conduct of members of the LAPD’s SWAT and Special Investigations units.

Federal authorities opened the investigation after LAPD officials themselves alerted them to the possible violations.

Suspicions in connection with the gun sales first arose back in 2010, when a lieutenant in the LAPD’s Metro division tried to inventory the division’s weapons.

After he determined that a large number of weapons had possibly been resold, Lt. Armando Perez and the LAPD’s inspector general Alex Bustamante filed a whistle-blower lawsuit.

Though a subsequent LAPD investigation into the activity found no wrongdoing on the part of the officers involved, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has publicly acknowledged that the investigation was “clearly lacking,” leading to the new independent FBI probe.